The Persian Bayan of Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab

2.2

trans. Dr. Denis MacEoin

The Second Chapter of the Second Unity

Concerning this, that none shall comprehend fully what God has sent down in
the Bayan, except those whom He wishes

The substance of this chapter is that no-one shall grasp what God has
revealed in the Bayan except him whom He shall manifest or him to whom He
has given knowledge. This is just like the Tree from which the Bayan
sprang forth [i.e. the Qur'an], for, were all the oceans of the heavens and
the earth to become ink and were all things pens and all souls enumerators,
even then they would be unable to provide an adequate interpretation of a
single word from among all the words of the Bayan, for God has created
neither a beginning nor an ending for any of His words.

None is permitted to interpret what God has sent down in the Bayan,
other than to relate all the letters of paradise to him whom God shall
manifest or to his Letters of the Living, and all the letters of hellfire
to the gates of his inferno. For all the letters of paradise shall be
resurrected beneath his shadow while all the letters of hell shall be
raised up again in the shadow of rejection. What has gone before resembles
what is yet to come: there is no alteration in the Cause of God, just as
what preceded what went before resembles what shall follow that which is
yet to come.

The whole Qur'an was one hundred and fourteen suras, and every six
suras were sent down according to the exaltation of the station of each
letter of the letter 'In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate'
[Bism Allah al-Rahman al-Rahim ]. Thus, the first six suras were from the
Point and the last six from the mim [?], and all the letters of paradise
return unto these nineteen manifestations, while the letters of hell return
to the nineteen manifestations of the gates of hell, just as all the gates
of hell return to their first gate, in the same manner that all the gates
of paradise return to their first gate - for all of them are joined
together in the phrase 'No god is there but God' (la ilaha illa 'llah ]:
whatever belongs to the letters of hell is connected to the (words of)
rejection [i.e. la ilaha ], and whatever belongs to the letters of
paradise is connected to the (words of) affirmation [i.e. illa 'llah ]. All
the letters of hell in the Qur'an were extinguished in the shadow of the
first gate of hell, and all the letters of paradise in the Qur'an endured
in the shadow of the word of affirmation. Thus does God cause to perish
whatever He wills and thus does He cause to endure whatever He wishes. He,
indeed, is Powerful, Mighty, and Strong.

It is not permissible to interpret the Bayan other than in
accordance with the interpretation given by its Tree [i.e. the Bab]. All
its goodly words may be fittingly applied to the lights of the hearts of
them that believe in it, while all its letters of hell may be construed as
refrring to the realities of those who do not believe in it.

The Bayan has ever been and ever will be like the soul of a man who
is alive; and all its letters of light and fire provide explanations of
(what is in) the horizons and the souls of men. Thus, in this day, whoever
wishes to make distinction [tamyiz dahad ] is able to do so, since this is
the day of the appearance of God; but once the Tree has been uprooted [i.e.
after the Bab's death] no-one shall be able to distinguish (matters) in
accordance with their reality, other than in the outward sense. He in whom
the limits of God are no numbered [?] belongs to the letters of paradise,
and he in whom they are numbered belongs to the letters of hell, that God
may cause all created things to rejoice in that through the appearance of
His own Self on the Day of Resurrection. Wherefore, the Point of the Bayan
shall not decree at its end according to what was decreed at its beginning.
Whoso believes in it is one of the letters of paradise. And whoso does no
believe in it is one of the letters of hell. God shall dinstinguish in
truth between them both. He, indeed, is the best of distinguishers.

Matters have reached the point where there shall be no further
mention of the letters of hell, except in the pages of the Book. The Tree
ogf Negation imagines itself to be one of the Letters of Paradise and
curses itself, all the time unaware that it is doing so. (Things shall
continue like this) until the Sun of Truth rises up; at that moment, his
lack of true faith shall be revealed, for whoever lives during that
resurrection shall see things with the eye of certitude. This is similar to
the way in which all men in this day say 'we are believers in God and in
the verses of the Qur'an', whereas the Tree of Truth who actually sent the
Qur'an down, dwells on this mountain with only a single companion.

Thus, at the time of the reappearance of the Sun of Truth, its
realities have been uncovered and the veils that concealed it have been
raised. Men who have had no thought other than to obtain the good-pleasure
of God have issued decrees for actions that the pen is ashamed to mention,
all directed against the Treasury of the divine good-pleasure, through whom
alone God's good-pleasure is shown to men. Wherefore, O men of insight,
take heed and fear God's command.